Exotic Option Pricing and Advanced Lévy Models


Book Description

Since around the turn of the millennium there has been a general acceptance that one of the more practical improvements one may make in the light of the shortfalls of the classical Black-Scholes model is to replace the underlying source of randomness, a Brownian motion, by a Lévy process. Working with Lévy processes allows one to capture desirable distributional characteristics in the stock returns. In addition, recent work on Lévy processes has led to the understanding of many probabilistic and analytical properties, which make the processes attractive as mathematical tools. At the same time, exotic derivatives are gaining increasing importance as financial instruments and are traded nowadays in large quantities in OTC markets. The current volume is a compendium of chapters, each of which consists of discursive review and recent research on the topic of exotic option pricing and advanced Lévy markets, written by leading scientists in this field. In recent years, Lévy processes have leapt to the fore as a tractable mechanism for modeling asset returns. Exotic option values are especially sensitive to an accurate portrayal of these dynamics. This comprehensive volume provides a valuable service for financial researchers everywhere by assembling key contributions from the world's leading researchers in the field. Peter Carr, Head of Quantitative Finance, Bloomberg LP. This book provides a front-row seat to the hottest new field in modern finance: options pricing in turbulent markets. The old models have failed, as many a professional investor can sadly attest. So many of the brightest minds in mathematical finance across the globe are now in search of new, more accurate models. Here, in one volume, is a comprehensive selection of this cutting-edge research. Richard L. Hudson, former Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, and co-author with Benoit B. Mandelbrot of The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward




American-Type Options


Book Description

The book gives a systematical presentation of stochastic approximation methods for discrete time Markov price processes. Advanced methods combining backward recurrence algorithms for computing of option rewards and general results on convergence of stochastic space skeleton and tree approximations for option rewards are applied to a variety of models of multivariate modulated Markov price processes. The principal novelty of presented results is based on consideration of multivariate modulated Markov price processes and general pay-off functions, which can depend not only on price but also an additional stochastic modulating index component, and use of minimal conditions of smoothness for transition probabilities and pay-off functions, compactness conditions for log-price processes and rate of growth conditions for pay-off functions. The volume presents results on structural studies of optimal stopping domains, Monte Carlo based approximation reward algorithms, and convergence of American-type options for autoregressive and continuous time models, as well as results of the corresponding experimental studies.




Option Pricing Models and Volatility Using Excel-VBA


Book Description

This comprehensive guide offers traders, quants, and students the tools and techniques for using advanced models for pricing options. The accompanying website includes data files, such as options prices, stock prices, or index prices, as well as all of the codes needed to use the option and volatility models described in the book. Praise for Option Pricing Models & Volatility Using Excel-VBA "Excel is already a great pedagogical tool for teaching option valuation and risk management. But the VBA routines in this book elevate Excel to an industrial-strength financial engineering toolbox. I have no doubt that it will become hugely successful as a reference for option traders and risk managers." —Peter Christoffersen, Associate Professor of Finance, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University "This book is filled with methodology and techniques on how to implement option pricing and volatility models in VBA. The book takes an in-depth look into how to implement the Heston and Heston and Nandi models and includes an entire chapter on parameter estimation, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone interested in derivatives should have this book in their personal library." —Espen Gaarder Haug, option trader, philosopher, and author of Derivatives Models on Models "I am impressed. This is an important book because it is the first book to cover the modern generation of option models, including stochastic volatility and GARCH." —Steven L. Heston, Assistant Professor of Finance, R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland




Dynamic Hedging


Book Description

Destined to become a market classic, Dynamic Hedging is the only practical reference in exotic options hedgingand arbitrage for professional traders and money managers Watch the professionals. From central banks to brokerages to multinationals, institutional investors are flocking to a new generation of exotic and complex options contracts and derivatives. But the promise of ever larger profits also creates the potential for catastrophic trading losses. Now more than ever, the key to trading derivatives lies in implementing preventive risk management techniques that plan for and avoid these appalling downturns. Unlike other books that offer risk management for corporate treasurers, Dynamic Hedging targets the real-world needs of professional traders and money managers. Written by a leading options trader and derivatives risk advisor to global banks and exchanges, this book provides a practical, real-world methodology for monitoring and managing all the risks associated with portfolio management. Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the founder of Empirica Capital LLC, a hedge fund operator, and a fellow at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. He has held a variety of senior derivative trading positions in New York and London and worked as an independent floor trader in Chicago. Dr. Taleb was inducted in February 2001 in the Derivatives Strategy Hall of Fame. He received an MBA from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. from University Paris-Dauphine.




Levy Processes in Finance


Book Description

Financial mathematics has recently enjoyed considerable interest on account of its impact on the finance industry. In parallel, the theory of L?vy processes has also seen many exciting developments. These powerful modelling tools allow the user to model more complex phenomena, and are commonly applied to problems in finance. L?vy Processes in Finance: Pricing Financial Derivatives takes a practical approach to describing the theory of L?vy-based models, and features many examples of how they may be used to solve problems in finance. * Provides an introduction to the use of L?vy processes in finance. * Features many examples using real market data, with emphasis on the pricing of financial derivatives. * Covers a number of key topics, including option pricing, Monte Carlo simulations, stochastic volatility, exotic options and interest rate modelling. * Includes many figures to illustrate the theory and examples discussed. * Avoids unnecessary mathematical formalities. The book is primarily aimed at researchers and postgraduate students of mathematical finance, economics and finance. The range of examples ensures the book will make a valuable reference source for practitioners from the finance industry including risk managers and financial product developers.




Exotic Options Trading


Book Description

Written by an experienced trader and consultant, Frans de Weert’s Exotic Options Trading offers a risk-focused approach to the pricing of exotic options. By giving readers the necessary tools to understand exotic options, this book serves as a manual to equip the reader with the skills to price and risk manage the most common and the most complex exotic options. De Weert begins by explaining the risks associated with trading an exotic option before dissecting these risks through a detailed analysis of the actual economics and Greeks rather than solely stating the mathematical formulae. The book limits the use of mathematics to explain exotic options from an economic and risk perspective by means of real life examples leading to a practical interpretation of the mathematical pricing formulae. The book covers conventional options, digital options, barrier options, cliquets, quanto options, outperformance options and variance swaps, and explains difficult concepts in simple terms, with a practical approach that gives the reader a full understanding of every aspect of each exotic option. The book also discusses structured notes with exotic options embedded in them, such as reverse convertibles, callable and puttable reverse convertibles and autocallables and shows the rationale behind these structures and their associated risks. For each exotic option, the author makes clear why there is an investor demand; explains where the risks lie and how this affects the actual pricing; shows how best to hedge any vega or gamma exposure embedded in the exotic option and discusses the skew exposure. By explaining the practical implications for every exotic option and how it affects the price, in addition to the necessary mathematical derivations and tools for pricing exotic options, Exotic Options Trading removes the mystique surrounding exotic options in order to give the reader a full understanding of every aspect of each exotic option, creating a useable tool for dealing with exotic options in practice. “Although exotic options are not a new subject in finance, the coverage traditionally afforded by many texts is either too high level or overly mathematical. De Weert's exceptional text fills this gap superbly. It is a rigorous treatment of a number of exotic structures and includes numerous examples to clearly illustrate the principles. What makes this book unique is that it manages to strike a fantastic balance between the theory and actual trading practice. Although it may be something of an overused phrase to describe this book as compulsory reading, I can assure any reader they will not be disappointed.” —Neil Schofield, Training Consultant and author of Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications “Exotic Options Trading does an excellent job in providing a succinct and exhaustive overview of exotic options. The real edge of this book is that it explains exotic options from a risk and economical perspective and provides a clear link to the actual profit and pricing formulae. In short, a must read for anyone who wants to get deep insights into exotic options and start trading them profitably.” —Arturo Bignardi




Lévy Processes


Book Description

A Lévy process is a continuous-time analogue of a random walk, and as such, is at the cradle of modern theories of stochastic processes. Martingales, Markov processes, and diffusions are extensions and generalizations of these processes. In the past, representatives of the Lévy class were considered most useful for applications to either Brownian motion or the Poisson process. Nowadays the need for modeling jumps, bursts, extremes and other irregular behavior of phenomena in nature and society has led to a renaissance of the theory of general Lévy processes. Researchers and practitioners in fields as diverse as physics, meteorology, statistics, insurance, and finance have rediscovered the simplicity of Lévy processes and their enormous flexibility in modeling tails, dependence and path behavior. This volume, with an excellent introductory preface, describes the state-of-the-art of this rapidly evolving subject with special emphasis on the non-Brownian world. Leading experts present surveys of recent developments, or focus on some most promising applications. Despite its special character, every topic is aimed at the non- specialist, keen on learning about the new exciting face of a rather aged class of processes. An extensive bibliography at the end of each article makes this an invaluable comprehensive reference text. For the researcher and graduate student, every article contains open problems and points out directions for futurearch. The accessible nature of the work makes this an ideal introductory text for graduate seminars in applied probability, stochastic processes, physics, finance, and telecommunications, and a unique guide to the world of Lévy processes.




Financial Modelling with Jump Processes


Book Description

WINNER of a Riskbook.com Best of 2004 Book Award! During the last decade, financial models based on jump processes have acquired increasing popularity in risk management and option pricing. Much has been published on the subject, but the technical nature of most papers makes them difficult for nonspecialists to understand, and the mathematic




Option Pricing and Estimation of Financial Models with R


Book Description

Presents inference and simulation of stochastic process in the field of model calibration for financial times series modelled by continuous time processes and numerical option pricing. Introduces the bases of probability theory and goes on to explain how to model financial times series with continuous models, how to calibrate them from discrete data and further covers option pricing with one or more underlying assets based on these models. Analysis and implementation of models goes beyond the standard Black and Scholes framework and includes Markov switching models, Lévy models and other models with jumps (e.g. the telegraph process); Topics other than option pricing include: volatility and covariation estimation, change point analysis, asymptotic expansion and classification of financial time series from a statistical viewpoint. The book features problems with solutions and examples. All the examples and R code are available as an additional R package, therefore all the examples can be reproduced.




Financial Derivatives Modeling


Book Description

This book gives a comprehensive introduction to the modeling of financial derivatives, covering all major asset classes (equities, commodities, interest rates and foreign exchange) and stretching from Black and Scholes' lognormal modeling to current-day research on skew and smile models. The intended reader has a solid mathematical background and is a graduate/final-year undergraduate student specializing in Mathematical Finance, or works at a financial institution such as an investment bank or a hedge fund.